Projects We Support

Selected Project:  

All Souls Football Teams Nairobi, Kenya

 

Founder Patrick Gacara once a professional football player until injury  of a blown out knee forced him out of competition, coaches the teams each morning from 8-12 am. Both boys and girls ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old, all struggling to keep drug and alcohol free in an environment that tries to make that impossible at every turn of the corner. They have saved the money to join the government registry for soccer league play and continue to seek funds to compete in national games which costs roughly to $150 dollars for the team's food, lodging and travel.

The team is open to all for membership, the only requirement is that they are substance free and stay that way. The team alternates members to play so all will get a chance. A new ball is under twenty dollars and they always need a new ball. Equipment is passed around, with many of the team members practicing in bare feet because saving their shoes is more important than wearing them during practice. They rarely have enough equipment to go around garnering injuries with each match. All team members find it hard to travel when it means chosing between a job for the afternoon or playing soccer. Usually the job wins out, leaving the team short.

The team requires new or used equipment, balls, uniforms, shoes, protective gear and then also could use medical and travel funds.

FAST FACTS:

For a growing number of children, estimated to number between 30,000 and 150,000, who live on Nairobi's streets, the "City of the Sun" is a dangerous and foreboding place.

These children - whose parents have died of AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, traffic accidents, or some other calamity or - more frequently, who are simply no longer able to care for them - are the targets of many cruelties, both brutal and casual. These range from letters to the editors of the local newspapers advocating their detention and punishment, to sexual abuse by strangers and older or stronger street dwellers, to police sweeps, in which the children are rounded up and sent to remand homes where overcrowding, underfeeding, and disease (such as scabies) are rampant.